Reflecting on India

Nandan Nilekani is the CEO of Infosys, and a highly visible leader in the global IT CEO pantheon. He recently wrote a 500+ page book called, "Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation." He was recently interviewed at the Wharton School Forum. He saw one of his functions as being a global ambassador for India, as he visited customers around the world and they asked him questions about the country. Eventually, he decided that he couldn't answer many of their pressing questions, such as "How can India have such shiny corporate campuses co-existing with miserable slums right on their doorstep?" So, he interviewed more than 125 leaders in different fields, thought long and hard, and came up with this book. I applaud what drove him to this effort. I hope to able to tackle reading the book, but some things he said in the interview struck me right away.

The critical problem for India, he says, is to expand access to resources and opportunities for a very young population. That young demographic gives India tremendous potential in the sense that a productive workforce of that size can support a large, older population and provide social stability. He duly notes that in the South (especially Kerala) and the West of India, the demographics show an aging population and stable or declining birth rates. In the North and Central parts of the country, the population is young and growth rates are high. Unfortunately, this is exactly where the rural-urban migration is taking place, and these are the people who are creating and populating the slums that his questioners are asking about. That rural-urban migration has to stabilize and eventually stop. Unfortunately, India has been wrestling unsuccessfully with this problem since Independence.

Nilekani rightly notes success in what he calls "infrastructure" by citing the example of the wireless communications infrastructure story in India. He cites more than 8 million cell phone users among the middle class population, of which he says more than ninety percent are prepaid phones. Good for the companies, and hopefully good for the users too. Speaking about the Indian elections, he notes that India is the only country in the world that relies on electronic voting machines, were 1.1 million electronic machines collect and tabulate the vote for an electorate of more than 700 million. These are certainly successes to be admired.

However, the most basic infrastructure like water, power and transportation remains a disgrace. "Seventeenth century" would be an appropriate epithet for these sectors. If you've ever driven behind a diesel public bus in any large Indian city, I don't have to say more.

If ordinary communities don't have water, power and sanitation, then agriculture can't flourish, people can't feed themselves and remain on the land, and they will migrate to the big cities. If urban households don't have the same amenities, then kids will face challenges in doing their homework and staying motivated because they're hungry and they don't have a comfortable environment to study. It affects everyone, and I see the same thing here in Minneapolis, tutoring inner city minority children in mathematics.

The issue isn't a lack of ability or a lack of desire. For many kids here, it's the fact that no one is home to make them breakfast before school or there is no food on the table for anyone. For others, it is a lack of a quiet space in an overcrowded, uncomfortable apartment that makes it impossible to concentrate. It's magnified in a country like India. For a small percentage of the population that can overcome the odds and get into an elite college, there's a pathway out, but the percentages don't work.

Nilekani is right; it is about access and opportunity. But, this presupposes the existence of basic infrastructure for stable families and communities. It presupposes a balance between industry and agriculture, where some people can remain tied to the land and live decent lives. India, unfortunately, is getting stumped on these issues, and its corporate elites have to find a way to take these issues on because it's the right thing to do, and it's in their own self-interest. Otherwise, over time, extremism and dissatisfaction will roil the political system and overturn the gains we've earned so far.